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Andrea Horwath says ‘bullspit’ to coalition with Tories

The Liberals and NDP are rejecting the idea of forming a post-election coalition with the Progressive Conservatives.

Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath walks past a statue dedicated to former federal NDP Leader Jack Layton before addressing the media in Toronto on June 9, 2014. She was off to an early start in the Windsor area today. She was scheduled to make stops in London, Brantford and Kitchener.
(Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

The Liberals and New Democrats are rejecting the idea of forming a post-election coalition with the Progressive Conservatives, leaving Tim Hudak without a dance partner if his Tories win a minority government in Thursday’s vote.

After sidestepping the question for several days, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath on Tuesday dismissed the possibility that her New Democrats would formally align behind a minority Tory government.

“I’m going to say very clearly. I call bullspit on the idea that we will have a coalition with Tim Hudak,” Horwath said to the cheers of NDP supporters during a campaign stop in Essex.

Liberal Leader Wynne appeared to go even further, rejecting the idea of any co-operation with a Progressive Conservative minority government and leaving open the prospect that voters could soon be back again at the polls.

“I will not support a Tim Hudak government. What he is proposing is dangerous for the people of this province,” Wynne said in Kingston Tuesday.

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“I don’t see any good coming of supporting the proposals he’s put forward,” Wynne added, repeating her pitch that voters should abandon the NDP for the Liberals as the only way to stop Hudak in a tight race.

Pressed on whether she would direct her MPPs to defeat every Hudak government initiative — which could force another vote — Wynne would not get into details.

With polls showing a tight race between the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives with New Democrats in third, there’s a good chance voters will wake up Friday to another minority government at Queen’s Park.

Recognizing that she could be in the driver’s seat holding the balance of power, Horwath has played coy about her party’s post-vote intentions, saying only that didn’t want to “prejudge” Thursday’s election.

But pointing to her party’s record after the 2011 vote produced a Liberal minority government — propped up by the NDP in 2012 and 2013 — Horwath suggested New Democrats would be open whatever the election outcome.

“I can’t presuppose what that decision will be. . . . I will do what needs to be done to deliver for Ontarians,” Horwath said.

“I think New Democrats have shown how much we respect decisions that voters make.”

She has made it plain this week that the NDP would not back the Progressive Conservatives’ plan to cut 100,000 positions off the provincial payroll.

Asked about the prospect of forming a coalition government with the Liberals, she didn’t rule it out.

With just two days to go to the vote, the Liberals and New Democrats ramped up their fight for centre-left voters.

Wynne insisted she is running for a “strong mandate,” noting recent public opinion polls suggest “this race is effectively tied.”

“It will be Tim Hudak or it will be me . . . we need every progressive vote in this province,” Wynne said.

But campaigning in southern Ontario, Horwath accused Wynne of “grasping at straws.”

“I have to say no matter how desperate and how negative Kathleen Wynne gets, she cannot stop Tim Hudak,” she said during a morning stop in Essex, a message driven home in an opinion piece written for the Toronto Star.

NDP MPPs “are the most progressive choice for Ontario and the strategic choice in your riding,” she wrote in the Star.

As well, the NDP have been sending a taped message by Horwath into some ridings. In one message, delivered to voters in Guelph, Horwath tells voters “don’t let them (Liberals) tell you what to think or how to vote.

“You don’t have to vote out of fear because the Conservatives will never win in Guelph,” Horwath’s message says.

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